My uncle Dudley

by Wright Morris

The story of a Californian who wants to return home to Chicago told by his teen nephew. My Uncle Dudley is Wright Morris's first novel, originally published in 1942.

Genres: Novels

210 pages, Hardcover

First published October 1, 1975

About the author

Wright Marion Morris was an American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting with narrative forms.
Morris won the National Book Award for The Field of Vision in 1956. His final novel, Plains Song won the American Book Award in 1981.

Reviews

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wright Morris' first novel, published in 1942 - his next would not be until after WWII in 1948. In the mid '50's he had a couple books that gave him national attention, but later in his life fell back to being viewed as a regional/Midwest/Nebraska writer, but still with a national reputation.

I haven't read Wright in decades, although recently picked up some of his titles. Grabbed this signed paperback reprint at Bluestem Books in Lincoln, NE. It caught my eye because I enjoy reading stories of early automobile travel, when roads hardly even existed.

A road trip with various characters (who are shed along the way) that starts out in LA (the city) and ends in the backwaters of LA (the state). A scene around a campfire in the middle of nowhere AZ is interesting and of a kind that is seldom done any longer - they sit about and discuss "what kind of Man are you?".

But the most interesting is the longish first chapter of the 3rd and last section of the novel. In a backwaters LA jailhouse, some new characters are introduced, and seem to be a mix of Shakespeare's Hamlet gravediggers by way of Faulkner and Beckett! The chapter doesn't quite fit in with the rest of the novel, yet it gives the young writer a chance to show off a bit, and try a few things other than the 1st person straight forward narrative that precedes it.

I enjoyed the novel, and the beginning is fun when shyster Uncle Dudley gets together a crew of strangers to drive back to Chicago for a fee. Oh, and if you're driving east through OK, OKC comes *before* Tulsa! Not everybody's cup of tea, read it if you like Wright, or you enjoy early automobile travel narratives - both of which fit me.

[Jim Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a tradition as old as literature about being on the move. It could be on a boat, a horse, a train or by foot, but man is always traveling and searching for something. Uncle Dudley is a road trip book about a group of men who meet in 1920’s LA and decide to get out of a city filled with artificiality and return to where they came from. The characters are rounded up by the narrator’s Uncle Dudley, who is something of a con man AND a pied piper. Uncle Dudley really is the DUDE, calm, philosophical, and yet no nonsense. The cast of characters who pile into his $65 used jalopy represent the best and worst of America. Overall, the book is a delight, but it does bog down a bit towards the end when they have to spend the night in an Arkansas jail (a little too philosophical for my taste).

[James Council · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just finished this book, and I don't understand what I just read. Everything was so random, from the storytelling, to the characters, and the ending. Characters just randomly disappear throughout the story, and I do not understand the main character's motives. This was probably the worst book I have ever bothered to finish.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe ultimately not much to this book, but I liked it because all of the characters would fit right into a Tom Waits song. Written in a strange, colloquial style that is sometimes stilted and sometimes great.